Current Cattle Market Daily Headlines for Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Mackenzie Johnston

6 years ago

Union president says JBS workers are scared to go to work amid outbreak at meatpacking plants

Three months after the JBS plant in Greeley was forced to shut down due to a coronavirus outbreak and less than a week after an unscheduled employee walkout, talks between the workers union and management broke down on Monday.
Kim Cordova, president of UFCW7, the union that represents JBS employees, said that JBS will not listen to workers safety concerns even though workers at the JBS Greeley plant work in some of the most dangerous conditions in the entire country.
According to Sylvia Martinez, a spokesperson for a group that also represents JBS employees, a miscommunication between JBS and the supervisors within the plant is occurring. Workers are told to stay home if they are sick, but within the plant, if a worker calls in sick, they are being threatened that they better report to work or they will lose their job.
Cordova said that eight hours of talks with JBS management ended with no significant progress. She went on to say that she is furious with the company not showing workers the respect they deserve and she isn’t sure where the situation goes from here.
After the talks on Monday, JBS released a statement saying they have offered their workers a competitive base wage rate of $18.00/hr. with a top wage rate of nearly $25.00/hr. The local union has refused to present this offer to JBS Greeley employees, costing them thousands of dollars in lost wages.

Burger King is planning to sell Whoppers sourced from cows that belch out less methane as the fast-food industry grapples with a questionable sustainability record.
Burger King plans to debut a limited-time sandwich on Tuesday made from cattle raised on a diet supplemented with lemongrass. This supplementation is expected to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cattle by about a third.
- This burger will be available on menus at select stores in Miami, New York, Austin, Portland, and Los Angeles while supplies last.
The actual sale of low-methane beef across a fast-food empire will require suppliers and retailers to pay a significantly higher price for the product.